Thar desert and Mussoorie hill station

After leaving Tim and Odette in Jodhpur, we took the night train to the end of the line, Jaiselmer, only 150 km east of the Pakistan border.   As we drove from the train station to our hotel in the early morning dawn, it was apparent that we were deep in the desert, with the only relief in the horizon the prominent "sand castle" fort on the only hill within 100 miles.  The town was beautiful, with the fort constantly looming overhead,  relatively quiet streets and friendly people, but it was definitely hot.  Ironically, it was the farthest we had travelled from Delhi, both in distance and seemingly in history as the fort was the oldest and the town was the least developed, but the constant roar of air force jets overhead patrolling the border was a reminder of the military power of the country we were still in.

 

We decided to go on an overnight camel trek, further into the desert.  We drove another 50km towards Pakistan and climbed onto the waiting camels.  The camel part of the camel trek was pretty cool, but the trek part left a little to be desired.  We paralleled the paved road we had come in on for about 45 minutes, then made a 90 degree turn to the west and walked for 10 minutes and we were there.  While not very far from the road, we were still a long way from civilization, as we sat on rolling sand dunes and watched the sun disappear into the desert.  A beautiful full moon rose on the opposite horizon as we wished Bob a happy 29th birthday.   Waking in the middle of the night to what seemed like broad daylight, to the gentle sound of tinkling bells on the hobbled camels along with the shuffling dung beetles patrolling the perimeter of our sheet bed for any loose poo was a surreal experience.  We woke early the next morning and made it back to Jaiselmer before the heat of the day kicked in.  We were on an 18 hour train back to  Delhi later that afternoon.

   

After relaxing in the T&O palace for a couple days, complete with a round of golf at the Delhi golf club (mughal tombs and peacocks be warned, I have a mean slice) we bid goodbye to Bob as he headed solo to Nepal.  Lauren and I took another night train to Dehra Dun, where we hopped in a taxi for the 36km very very windy climb up to the hill station of Mussoorie.  Many of the hotels were old British Raj palace built in the middle of the 19th century, and it looked as if nothing had been done to them since.  We decided to stay in the nicest hotel in town as it was our first anniversary, which was luckily only 6 months old, as apparently the moisture, freezing temperature and Indian construction techniques make short work of most buildings.  It was a beautiful place with a private balcony looking north to the snow capped Himalayas, 100 km away.  When checking out the next morning, the manager offered to cut the price by about 40 percent if we stayed for the rest of our three days.  We quickly agreed and set about exploring the forested hill sides.   The climate was perfect, similar to Seattle, rainy one minute, sunny the next, temperature in the 70's.  We spent a lovely 5 days their all together walking along the ridge that town was perched on in either direction.  We also walked 13 km down the backside of the hill one day to the popular tourist spot, Kempty falls.  Unfortunately, the beautiful, 500 ft cascades had been transformed into something of a slum as stick and tarp "shops" selling tourist junk surrounded the bottom and most spectacular pool.  The trash and blaring hindi music didn't help the effect either.  Nevertheless, the perfect weather, and daily exercise was perfect after the heat and languidity of the desert.  

   

We are now back in Delhi, shopping for carpets.  We take the night train to Gorakphur, and then a three hour bus ride to the north tomorrow morning will take us to the Nepal border, where we will figure out transportation to Pokhara, home of Adam and Jen, and their two young  children Zach and Hannah.  Jen is the daughter of Lauren's godparents and they run a paragliding company in Pokhara.  Nepal or bust......... 

India Pics

Here are some India pics from the last month or so.  We will write more soon.

India Pics 1

Rajasthan, Rajasthan

After spending a lovely three days of food, culture, and fun with Tim and Odette in Delhi, we headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Our friend Bob also joined us and we all began our friendship with the Indian railway.

The train ride to Agra was interesting as two guys who were in the military and riding the train all the way down south (56 hours) shared our seats with us. There was also a guy from Kandahar, but communicating with him was difficult as the Indian guys had to translate and English was their third language, after Malayalan and Hindi. Agra was a pretty quick wake up call from the luxury of Tim and O's house in Delhi as the area we stayed in (just south of the Taj Mahal) was a bit outside of our comfort zone in terms of cleanliness and noise. The Taj itself was spectacular, as was the Agra Fort (both built by Shah Jahan, aka "Ruler of the World," at the height of the Moghul empire in the 1600's.) The whole city was delivered to us by our death defying auto rickshaw driver, LaLa, who only yields to cows, not bikes, not people, not cars, not camels, not even elephants.

Moving west into the fringes of the Thar desert, the capital of Rajasthan state, Jaipur (2.5 million people) was pretty big, overpopulated, and also a bit dirty. The main site to see there, Amber Fort, a 12th century monument, was pretty impressive though. The real highlight of our time in Jaipur was getting caught in an absolute downpour and taking refuge in a 4ft in diameter construction tube with about 30 other people, one of which was a University student who asked as about life in North American and shared a bit of the Indian perspective. Unfortunately, his take on American society and politics was not very positive, but hopefully we shed a bit of light on it. We also attempted to go to a Bollywood movie, "Sigh is King." The theatre was very glamorous, but the lack of subtitles made it hard to keep our attention for the whole two hours.

Next , we took the night train to Udiapur which almost felt like a different country because of its small size, laid back people, and general lack of pushy touts. We stayed in a beautiful old mansion with views of the lake where "Octopussy" was filmed. We had the opportunity to talk with more people, visit an active temple, and the town is a maze of winding backstreets that are interesting to explore. One of the highlights of our time in Udiapur was taking a cooking class with Vijay, a former Rajasthan swimming champ. He took us to his home about 5km outside of town where we had the pleasure of meeting his wife, 10 month old daughter, and nephew. We not only learned how to make 10 dishes, including the basics on spices and tea, but he also showed us his wedding album and explained a bit about the Hindi traditions and religion. We went home with full, maybe too full, bellies and a once in a lifetime experience.

Our next stop was Jodhpur for the weekend to meet up with Tim and Odette. We hired a private taxi to take us on the 6 hour journey and stopped at two incredible sites along the way. Kumbalgarh Fort was sent up on the hillside with a view over a rural valley. It is the starting point of the second largest wall in the world, after China, and is 36km long with 360 temples within its boundaries. Ranakpur is home of a magnificent Jain Temple built completely of marble with 144 intricately carved pillars and wall to ceiling carvings of religious figures and symbols. In some ways it was even more impressive than the Taj because the detail was amazing and so much to take in at once. Jodhpur was also a bit big, but the fort here as well as the history of the Maharaja is interesting. It was also great to spend some more time learning from Tim and O. Tonight we will take the 11:15pm train to our last stop in Rajasthan, Jaislamer, where we hope to take an overnight camel trek into the desert. All in all India is a whirlwind of culture shock so far that is both incredibly alive and fascinating as well as difficult at times. We will do our best to post some pics when we get back to Delhi on Thursday. Namaste.

Pictures Finally!

Here are our two Thailand albums. Unfortunately, we have not had the time to add captions, but you get the idea. 

Enjoy. 

Thai Pics #1

Thai Pics #2

Arrival In Delhi

We made it to Delhi and are happily enjoying life with our friends Tim and Odette. The end of our Thailand/Cambodia adventure was fantastic and it was hard to say good-bye to the land of many smiles, but we are excited to begin the next part of our adventure. 

 

Angkor Wat was incredible. We got a guide from 5am until 2pm, allowing us to see the sunrise and sweat our way through most of the major temple sites.  The fact that it is the largest religious building in the world was impressive and we were particularly taken with the "Tomb Raider" and the "Smiling Faces" Wats, but have to admit by 2pm we were over Watted and unbearably hot.  The trip back to Thailand was fairly painless except for the three hour taxi ride on a dirt road and some young backpackers arguing over who had the cheapest hotel room. I think a room for $1 in Laos won. 

Anyway, once we returned to Bangkok we stayed in new neighborhood, Sukhumvit, and explored the city be skytrain.  Surprisingly, Keith and I were both quite taken with the mall that had a fresh Thai food court and huge fish tanks for ambiance. We then took a night train to Chompon and a catamaran to Koh Tao (Turtle Island).  We fell in love with Koh Tao and spent 4 lovely days enjoying the beach and diving.   We stayed in a secluded bungalow with an awesome view of the bay and a private balcony, which proved to be a very romantic end to our time in Thailand.

 

Arriving in Delhi was an entirely new cultural shock, but we

 are living it up so far with great food and company.  Our plan is to head to Agra (Taj Mahal) and Rajastan first and then down south. We are truly working on uploading photos with Tim and O's help and hopefully we can deliver them to you in the next few hours.